Danny Sullivan has an interesting blog post on this issue:
http://searchengineland.com/070330-100220.php
He cites the response from a Director at Google saying that it indeed was a technical issue: the desire to show higher resolution imagery.
Furthermore, they pretty much have to keep track of some history of which towers your phone has been talking to, in order to make efficient use of their resources. E.g., where to direct calls to when someone calls your cell phone.
So it's not a matter of getting the phone companies not to keep track of this information. It has to be a legal thing where the government can only get the information if there is probable cause, just as with other kinds of search warrants.
Does anyone know how many scientific journal papers are being published per Google researcher/per year? I bet it's a damn sight fewer than the rate for Bell Labs today, let alone Bell Labs of the monopoly era.
Yes, I agree that having PhDs is a key to making this work. At Bell Labs Research, where almost everyone has a PhD, people are expected to self-direct their research to a large extent. The goal is that about 50% of their time should be spent on conference quality research/breakhrough ideas/long term groundwork stuff. They aren't getting the best use of their PhDs unless they do this. Google's 20% has never been very impressive to me.
How many of you have ever helped or been helped by a boyfriend/girlfriend? I know of several instances of advanced degrees that were really earned by significant others. (It only seems to be possible in soft subjects, like English or Social Sciences.)
Love makes people do strange (and unethical) things.
I once wrote all of the essays for a g/f in a college-level English class. I was proud of them. They were really good - too good. One time, her laziness saved her from being caught: she skipped a class after having turned in one of my best efforts, and, luckily, therefore missed having to read it aloud to the rest of the class. I'd put too many words in that she didn't know and couldn't pronounce properly. The close call told me I had to dumb my stuff down a bit.
How the teacher never caught on, I'll never know, though it may have had something to do with how hot she was. There are certainly many ways to catch this kind of thing (as the above discussions show). He gave her an A+ and a glowing recommendation that helped her to transfer to a better college. I felt bad about aiding and abetting. That g/f is long gone, but I believe her lack of a good foundation in English eventually caught up with her (I'm now married to someone who'd not have needed nor would have sought such help).
I used to love Google.
Not anymore.
It has turned into the Borg, sucking up every last ounce of brilliance and hiding it under a barrel for corporate profits.
> Okay -- I did the math, and 2^29 seconds since January 1st 1970 would have been up on January 4th, 1987.
I remember that day - the Common Lisp system I was using (on a Sun) all of a sudden stopped recognizing when files were out of date and needed recompiling. Yup, they used a couple bits for a tag and then interpreted the rest as signed...
Slashdot Mirror
Danny Sullivan has an interesting blog post on this issue: http://searchengineland.com/070330-100220.php He cites the response from a Director at Google saying that it indeed was a technical issue: the desire to show higher resolution imagery.
Furthermore, they pretty much have to keep track of some history of which towers your phone has been talking to, in order to make efficient use of their resources. E.g., where to direct calls to when someone calls your cell phone. So it's not a matter of getting the phone companies not to keep track of this information. It has to be a legal thing where the government can only get the information if there is probable cause, just as with other kinds of search warrants.
Does anyone know how many scientific journal papers are being published per Google researcher/per year? I bet it's a damn sight fewer than the rate for Bell Labs today, let alone Bell Labs of the monopoly era.
Yes, I agree that having PhDs is a key to making this work. At Bell Labs Research, where almost everyone has a PhD, people are expected to self-direct their research to a large extent. The goal is that about 50% of their time should be spent on conference quality research/breakhrough ideas/long term groundwork stuff. They aren't getting the best use of their PhDs unless they do this. Google's 20% has never been very impressive to me.
How many of you have ever helped or been helped by a boyfriend/girlfriend? I know of several instances of advanced degrees that were really earned by significant others. (It only seems to be possible in soft subjects, like English or Social Sciences.)
Love makes people do strange (and unethical) things.
I once wrote all of the essays for a g/f in a college-level English class. I was proud of them. They were really good - too good. One time, her laziness saved her from being caught: she skipped a class after having turned in one of my best efforts, and, luckily, therefore missed having to read it aloud to the rest of the class. I'd put too many words in that she didn't know and couldn't pronounce properly. The close call told me I had to dumb my stuff down a bit.
How the teacher never caught on, I'll never know, though it may have had something to do with how hot she was. There are certainly many ways to catch this kind of thing (as the above discussions show). He gave her an A+ and a glowing recommendation that helped her to transfer to a better college. I felt bad about aiding and abetting. That g/f is long gone, but I believe her lack of a good foundation in English eventually caught up with her (I'm now married to someone who'd not have needed nor would have sought such help).
Parent knows whereof it speaks. Mod it up!
I used to love Google. Not anymore. It has turned into the Borg, sucking up every last ounce of brilliance and hiding it under a barrel for corporate profits.
Just to be clear, neither Rob Pike nor any other part of the Plan 9 team was laid off. People move on for numerous reasons.
> Okay -- I did the math, and 2^29 seconds since January 1st 1970 would have been up on January 4th, 1987. I remember that day - the Common Lisp system I was using (on a Sun) all of a sudden stopped recognizing when files were out of date and needed recompiling. Yup, they used a couple bits for a tag and then interpreted the rest as signed...